Shire Cruisers Information Pack

We are delighted you will be coming on holiday with us. Here is your Information Pack, containing all the information you need for your particular boat, starting from your booked boatyard. It contains everything you need to prepare for your holiday – what to bring, how to find us, and what you can expect of your boat and our service.

Please check you have the right page for you. Your Booking Confirmation shows these details. Other boats and bases have different pages.

This Pack contains useful information of many sorts. These are the key items, essential for you to study before your holiday:

• Holiday Guide
• Route Companion - where more than one is offered, pick the one that suits your plans
• Canal & River Trust Boater’s Handbook - and Boater’s DVD
• Specimen Handover Certificate

To give us information we need to prepare for your arrival, please return the Yellow Form (scroll down this page to find) as soon as you know all the answers but at least ten days before your holiday.

Since your whole crew need to be confident about safety before you can enjoy your holiday, we place great emphasis on giving you all the information and training you need to handle the boat, work locks and so on. This process starts now: please pass the url of this page to all your active crew, and encourage them to prepare. Then when you arrive to start your holiday, we will give you a thorough briefing and practical demonstration. Before we leave you on your own, we shall ask you to sign a Handover Certificate as a way of checking that we have explained everything to your satisfaction.

Each boat must have a Skipper. If that is not the Hirer, then the Hirer will sign to appoint a Skipper. There must also be a Mate, nominated by the Hirer or Skipper. This means that there are always two people who know how safely to navigate your boat.

If you are a novice, this may seem daunting. But don’t worry; we are good at making our training straightforward and enjoyable. If you are an experienced boater, we are sure you will appreciate that we need to tell you about the numerous unusual features of our northern waterways, and to make sure that any gaps are covered.

Please see important information below under Stoppages and restrictions. This section is updated to cover any important temporary restrictions or closures, in the event of adverse weather or waterway breakdown. We encourage everyone to sign up for Canal & River Trust's email stoppage alerts. These include emails to update you on the state of the river navigations - heavy rainfall can necessitate temporary closure, which you need to know about. These emails keep you in touch and make life much easier.

Please pay your balance six weeks before your holiday - the due date is on your Booking Confirmation.

There is a copy of the Boater’s Handbook and DVD on the boat.

We look forward to seeing you, and hope you have a wonderful time.

Yours sincerely,

Nigel and Susan Stevens

All this material (except where obviously published by CRT or others) is prepared by us exclusively for our customers. Versions shown here are updated periodically. Up-to-date information on opening times, stoppages etc. will be given to you on arrival. There is more about routes and canals on our website, but remember you can't get back to this page from the site, so bookmark it now.

Click to see how our handover procedure works.

Navigation update for Sowerby Bridge

Updated 10 March 2025

Water supply, Rochdale Canal

You may come across low water levels, sometimes because someone has a left a paddle (sluice) open. Canal & River Trust reacts quickly, but water to refill may have to be run over a long distance, so be patient. This is why it's so important to check everything is shut every time you leave a lock. Later in the summer there may be a pump drawing water from the river at Lock 16, which would be intended to help keep levels up through Hebden Bridge. The canal responds instantly to rainfall, but prolonged dry weather can lead to problems.

Water supply, Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Following severe storm damage on New Year's Day, the canal is currently closed at Lock 11W, above Stalybridge. Repairs will start soon and are likely to take many months, costing millions. Reservoir works at Diggle, and major works at Slaithwaite (Hill Top) will reduce water supply this summer. Whilst the canal is only accessible from the Huddersfield end, boats will be permitted to cross the summit through Standedge Tunnel, go down as far as Uppermill, and return through the tunnel a few days later. Tunnel passages are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and must be booked through us. Only boats booked through Standedge Tunnel may use the flights of locks either side of the tunnel - Marsden and Diggle.

The way this works for you is explained in CRT's detailed instructions.

If dry weather is prolonged or water is wasted, there is a risk that tunnel passages will be reduced. CRT will do all it can to honour existing bookings.

Long trips

The waterways are 250 years old, so things can go wrong. In particular, the Huddersfield Narrow and Rochdale Canals are exceptionally heavily locked - 75 locks in 25 miles, and 91 locks in 33 miles. Therefore they are at higher risk of breakdown than other canals which are not trying to get across the Pennines by aggressive routes. It is in the nature of such breakdowns that there is no advance notice. Long trips are more at risk simply because they include more locks. We stand ready to help, but prepare a Plan B in case you need it.

Water supply, Leeds & Liverpool Canal

Major reservoir works have reduced capacity for the start of this season. Shorter lock opening times will help to conserve water for later in the season. Note that a number of sites still have normal operating hours - see our Lock Opening Times page. Please always take great care to leave all gates and paddles closed.

Sign up for stoppage alerts (scroll right down to 'Receive stoppage notices').

We will update you when you pick up your boat, and lock opening times will be in the Boat Manual on your boat.

Going eastwards from Sowerby Bridge, a 125 mile network of river navigations gives you lots of scope for boating, whether relaxed or adventurous.

If the summer is dry, river levels may be low, so in a few places you need to follow the right channel. We will brief you on this, and information is in your Boat Manual. But you won't run out of water!

Stoppages and restrictions

Updated 21 April 2025

Reservoirs recovered well over the early winter. The ground is quite wet, so streams will continue to top up levels into the spring. However, rivers are likely to rise easily with any rainfall, so navigation on the Calder & Hebble and Aire & Calder Navigations may be interrupted more frequently than usual in the early part of the season.

Calder & Hebble Navigation

Ganny Lock (just above Brighouse): the bottom gates are quite leaky, so use both top paddles to fill the lock as quickly as you can, using as little water as possible.

Rochdale Canal

The canal is currently closed while water levels recover following months almost without rain.

Various locks leak quite badly, notably Lock 12. Be organised going through these locks.

Leeds & Liverpool Canal

Reservoir works will restrict supply this year, and the first three months of the year have been very dry, so most locks will be padlocked overnight. There is a strong chance of much heavier restrictions on lock use, or of closure, possibly of the length from Gargrave to Wigan. Up-to-date opening times will be in your Boat Manual.

Huddersfield Broad Canal

This canal is closed until water levels recover following damage to a river weir. The Environment Agency will not permit Canal & River Trust to repair till May, after the salmon-spawning season.

Network Rail requires closures of a bridge, as part of a major upgrade. Dates are 22 July to 3 August and 4-5 October.

Huddersfield Narrow Canal

A flood on New Year's Day washed away the banking between Lock 11W and the river. The site is very inaccessible and the repairs will be complex, difficult and very expensive. The Trust is now constructing an access route. The Trust will publish progress reports each month (sign up for stoppage alerts or look on its website). A reopening date of approx. 31 July has now been given. Meanwhile we are very sorry that a full passage of the HNC will not be possible.

Certain reservoirs are being held down for works and if the weather is very dry there may be restrictions later in the year.

Dependent on the result of earlierrepairs, navigation between Locks 1E and 3E may be restricted, see Opening Times.

Emergency stoppages are needed from time to time - that's why we suggest signing up for updates.

If your planned journey includes the river navigations (Calder & Hebble, Aire & Calder) then you have to be alert to the possibility that heavy rain makes the river flow too fast for safe navigation. If this happens, you simply tie up somewhere safe (in a lock cut) and wait for the excess water to run away. Observe carefully the coloured indicators which tell you when the river is safe to navigate.